This day in history

Friday

•In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.

Today is Friday, Jan. 30, the 30th day of 2009. There are 335 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

•On Jan. 30, 1968, the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals; although the Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the U.S. and its allies.

On this date:

•In 1649, England’s King Charles I was beheaded.

•In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y.

•In 1909, community organizer and social activist Saul Alinsky was born in Chicago.

•In 1939, the Supreme Court, in Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. Tennessee Valley Authority, upheld the right of the federally owned TVA to compete with private utilities.

•In 1962, two members of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.

•In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

•In 1979, the civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who’d been living in exile in France, to return.

•In 2003, Richard Reid, the British citizen and al-Qaida follower who’d tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston.

•Ten years ago: NATO authorized its secretary-general to launch military action in Yugoslavia if the warring parties failed to negotiate an agreement for autonomy in Kosovo.

•Five years ago: Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe was found guilty in connection with a party financing scandal and declared ineligible for public office for 10 years. NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity spied hints of a mineral that typically forms in water — a finding that could mean the dry and dusty Red Planet was once wetter and more hospitable to life.

•One year ago: John Edwards bowed out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the Republican presidential contest and endorsed front-runner and longtime friend John McCain. The Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate for the second time in just over a week, reducing the federal funds rate by a half point to 3 percent.